Gathering Psychometric Evidence for ASCIv2 to Support Cross-Cultural Attitudinal Studies for College Chemistry Programs - Affective Dimensions in Chemistry Education - page 186

of ASCIv2 in three countries makes us aware that, for validity in cross-cultural
studies based on an instrument, the population may not share a similar background
that cues participants to interpret items similarly, even when the language is the
same. When instruments are translated and adapted to different languages, language
factors alone can impact the test function and should be carefully examined
(Allalouf, 2003 ; Roth, Oliveri, Sandilands, Lyons-Thomas, & Ercikan, 2012 ).
With such efforts and evidence, we can have more confidence in conclusions of
attitudinal differences by sex and/or ethnicity as posited by Osborne.
Once a robust instrument is chosen which works equally well for multiple groups
with different backgrounds in the study setting, the next step is to use pre-post
designs to track student attitude change in order to make fair cross-cultural attitu-
dinal comparisons for college chemistry programs. Even with a robust instrument,
we still must avoid the danger of determining program quality across countries
based on one administration, because classes can be quite different. Other important
variables, such as students academic performance, class organizations, school

environment, school curriculum, and institutional selectivity, need to be tracked
and considered as potential confounds. Over time, with the accumulation of psy-
chometric evidence for the cross-cultural use of attitude instruments, we can have
more confidence in the understanding of attitude status and its relationship to other
variables such as academic performance and curriculum. Accordingly, more effec-
tive curriculum innovations can be chosen based on evidence and then implemented
to foster students

'

positive attitude while improving content learning.

'

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